- Ukraine war: Deadly strikes as US, Moscow regimes hold talks
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Russia and Ukraine launched overnight drone strikes against each other as the US confirmed American officials were set to meet Russian representatives in Abu Dhabi as part of efforts to end the war. Officials in Kyiv said at least six people had been killed in Russian strikes on the city, while Russian officials said at least three had been killed in a Ukrainian strike in the Rostov region.” (11/25/25)
- US judge throws out criminal cases against Comey, James
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A federal judge threw out the criminal cases against James Comey and Letitia James on Monday, concluding that the prosecutor handling the case was unlawfully appointed. Lindsey Halligan, who Trump named the interim US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia in September, had ‘no lawful authority to present the indictment’ against the former FBI director and New York attorney general, Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, wrote in her opinion. … Currie dismissed both cases ‘without prejudice,’ which means the government could theoretically try and bring the charges again under a properly appointed US attorney. But it is unclear if they could even do that in Comey’s case because the statute of limitations for the crime he is charged with passed on 30 September 2025.” (11/24/25)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/24/james-comey-letitia-james-charges-case-dismissed
- Sudan: RSF announces unilateral three-month “humanitarian truce”
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have announced an apparently unilateral three-month humanitarian truce in the country’s civil war. RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, made the announcement on Monday in a recorded address. The warring Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan did not immediately confirm that any agreement had been reached. Al-Burhan late on Sunday had rejected a ceasefire proposal put forward by the so-called Quad – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.” (11/24/25)
- Bitcoin tracks stocks higher with crypto traders staying on edge
Source: Los Angeles Times
“Bitcoin edged above $88,000 on Monday but lagged the broader rebound in U.S. equities, with the cryptocurrency still nursing losses from last week’s selloff. The modest move higher underscores the market’s cautious mood, as bullish conviction remains muted. The original cryptocurrency began to recover over the weekend after slumping to a seven-month low of $80,554 on Friday. Bitcoin, which had tumbled more than 20% in the last four weeks, was up less than 1% to about $88,400 on Monday. Other smaller, more volatile tokens increased more, with XRP jumping about 7% and Solana about 3% higher.” (11/24/25)
- Trump, China’s Xi speak; commit to 2026 state visits
Source: United Press International
“U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone Monday to discuss, among a number of topics, the Russia-Ukraine war, farming, the status of Taiwan and committing to future state visits. China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that the two leaders, who also met last month in South Korea, ‘reached many important common understandings.’ The two reportedly agreed to reciprocal in-person meetings, lower U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and export measures for rare-Earth minerals. … Trump confirmed an invite from Xi to visit Beijing next year in April. In addition, Xi is expected to come to the United States later next year for an official occasion.” (11/24/25)
- Red Sheep
Source: Quillette
by Ron Capshaw“An impressive new biography of Jessica Mitford emphasises her sceptical and anti-authoritarian personality. But this was only half of the picture.” (11/25/25)
- Tariffs vs. Quotas
Source: EconLog
by David Hebert“Because tariffs are a tax, they raise the price that consumers pay, increase the cost that sellers incur, or some combination of both. Point is: someone will pay the tax and those tax dollars will then flow into the federal government in the form of tariff revenue. … A quota is a legal restriction on the amount of a good that can be imported. Because it restricts the amount of a good that is allowed to enter a market, we can easily imagine a tariff and a quota having the same impact on the amount of a good that is imported. … Because tariffs and quotas ultimately have exactly the same effect on consumers and producers, there is good reason to believe that the two are economically equivalent, as Solicitor General Sauer argues. If that’s the case, why would any government use tariffs when they can instead use quotas?” (11/25/25)
- Three Lessons From Trump’s Latest Plan for Ukraine
Source: Washington Monthly
by Tamar Jacoby“The world appears to have dodged a bullet. Donald Trump and team are walking back from their latest and most outlandish proposal for peace in Ukraine. American and Ukrainian negotiators meeting in Geneva are working to revise the plan, and U.S. and European officials have agreed to meet separately to discuss its implications for NATO and the European Union. The outcome of these talks is unknown, and it’s hard to imagine a deal that will satisfy all parties — the Russian, Ukrainian, and European positions remain starkly at odds. But whatever the result, some things are already clear — including three lessons for the U.S. and Europe.” (11/25/25)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/11/25/trump-ukraine-plan-three-lessons/
- See No Evil: Epstein, Israel, and Looking the Other Way
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Brandt Burleson“What do the highest echelons of government, media, corporations, entertainment, and academia all have in common? Many of them may signify the systematic total moral degradation of our society. Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell, Bill Gates, Alexander Acosta, Noam Chomsky, Steve Bannon, Les Wexner, Bill Richardson, Alan Dershowitz, Laurence Kraus, and many more may represent an oligarchy of evil. I speak of course of course of these leaders’ various degrees of connection to notorious pedophile and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Notions that would have been dismissed as the ravings of a conspiracy addled mind wrapped in tinfoil a decade ago now appear considerably more plausible after recent revelations. Best case scenario, many incredibly influential individuals making decisions that impact hundreds of millions of people are ineffectual idiots who failed to see what was happening right under their noses: the horrific and disgusting trafficking over 1,000 women and girls.” (11/25/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/see-no-evil-epstein-israel-and-looking-the-other-way
- The Multipolarity Myth
Source: CounterPunch
by Elias Khoury“The United States remains the big kid on the block. Everyone else is either too weak or cowardly to challenge them. For a while, statements like that were uncontroversial. America was the lone superpower — its power, beyond debate. Lately, however, a chorus of voices has assembled to challenge that notion. Commentators, typically of the political Left, are increasingly using the word ‘multipolarity’ to describe a supposedly emerging world order. … the events of this past week tell a different tale. On November 17th, Donald Trump’s ‘peace plan’ for Gaza came before the United Nations Security Council. With the prospect of the most naked imperialism of this century becoming international law, ‘anti-imperialists’ Russia and China did nothing. Such blatant American criminality going unchallenged like that contradicts the idea we are headed for a multipolar globe.” (11/25/25)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/25/the-multipolarity-myth/
- Clutching at Munich, Tom Friedman says Putin stealing Thanksgiving
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Marcus Stanley“Among certain foreign policy mavens, the year is always 1938, and the location is always Munich. Thomas Friedman gives the latest example. This weekend, he awarded Trump the ‘Neville Chamberlain Prize’ for proposing the parameters of a negotiated settlement to the bloody and seemingly endless Russia-Ukraine war. Not only would the execution of Trump’s plan, he claims, lead to the modern equivalent of World War II and put all of Europe ‘under Putin’s thumb,’ it would mean that ‘Thanksgiving will no longer be an American holiday.’ It would ‘become a Russian holiday,’ a day of thanks for Trump’s delivery of a Russian victory in Putin’s misbegotten war. Losing all of Europe and having to refight WWII is bad enough, but losing Thanksgiving? The perfidy of Putin and Trump knows no bounds!” (11/24/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-neville-chamberlain/
- The Shutdown Was a Game
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by David Cardaronella“On October 1, the federal government shut down—halting non-essential services after the failure of Republicans and Democrats to pass an appropriations bill. Even after becoming the longest government shutdown in American history, the end was nowhere in sight. It may seem that both parties would want to avoid shutdowns, especially ones lasting that long, to accomplish at least some elements of their agendas rather than waste weeks of a legislative session. However, this is not the case when certain incentives are at play, including the incentives to pressure, misrepresent, and engage in costly signaling of resolve.” (11/24/25)
- Filling the Swamp
Source: Independent Institute
by Sam Jenson“In September 2024, U.S. border czar Tom Homan met with undercover FBI agents acting as business executives. According to sources interviewed by The New York Times, he accepted $50,000 hidden in a CAVA bag and guaranteed those undercover agents lucrative federal contracts. FBI agents recorded Homan accepting the cash as part of a broader probe into corruption within the Trump administration. This is corruption. In September, a Trump appointed DOJ official called it a ‘deep state’ probe. Despite having recorded evidence of Homan accepting the bribe, the White House denies any wrongdoing on Homan’s part. … Homan’s case is not an isolated incident.” (11/24/25
https://www.independent.org/article/2025/11/24/filling-swamp-homan/
- It’s Time for a New Left
Source: Persuasion
by Ruy Teixeira“The 20th century encompassed the era of social democracy followed by an attempt to resurrect the left through the Third Way after that era’s ignominious end. In the 21st century, the left embarked on a new project they hoped would remedy 20th century weaknesses and inaugurate a new era of political and governance success. We are now a quarter of the way through the 21st century, which has witnessed both a genuine ‘crisis of capitalism’ (the Great Recession of 2007-09) and the systemic breakdown of the COVID era (2020-22). Enough time has gone by to render a judgement: despite ample opportunity to advance their cause, the left’s 21st century project has failed and failed badly.” (11/24/25)
- You can’t eliminate real-world violence by suing over online speech
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Ari Cohn“The debate over algorithmic content recommendation has been going on for years. Lower courts have almost universally held that Section 230 immunizes social media platforms from lawsuits claiming that algorithmic recommendation of harmful content contributed to terrorist attacks, mass shootings, and racist attacks. When faced with the question in 2023, the Supreme Court declined to rule on the scope of Section 230 — opting instead to hold the claims of algorithmic aiding and abetting at issue would not survive either way. But there’s an important question that usually gets lost in the heated debate over Section 230: Would such lawsuits be viable even if they could be brought?” (11/24/25)
https://www.thefire.org/news/you-cant-eliminate-real-world-violence-suing-over-online-speech
- Destituent power and “the task of the coming politics”
Source: The Peaceful Revolutionist
by David S D’Amato“I’m reading through a book by the American philosopher Idris Robinson, The Revolt Eclipses Whatever the World Has to Offer, and it has been helpful to my thinking about where we go from here. The dichotomy of constituent vs. destituent power also helps to explain my broader criticism of the professional-managerial class and its politics, so I thought it might be good to share a few words. Nothing defines the professional-managerial class quite like their tendency to give maximum credence to anything uttered by the ultra-elite who actually rule our country. There is a tendency in the PMC to attribute epistemic and moral authority to this ultra-elite.” (11/24/25)
https://dsdamato.substack.com/p/destituent-power-and-the-task-of
- The Conservative Movement’s Intellectual Collapse
Source: The Atlantic
by Jonathan Chait“The Heritage Foundation, which has stood for decades as the intellectual crown jewel of the conservative movement, has been convulsed in an ugly public spat over the organization’s approach to anti-Semitism. Employees and visiting scholars are resigning from and revolting against the think tank over its defense of the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and anti-Semite who has gained prominence in MAGA circles. The conflict has exposed the degree to which previously forbidden bigotries have penetrated the heart of the Trump-era Republican Party. It has also revealed a somewhat different, yet related pathology: the brain death of the conservative movement.” (11/24/25)
- Mass Surveillance Is Powering a New Era of Pretextual Traffic Stops
Source: Reason
by Autumn Billings“An extensive network of automatic license plate readers is being used to develop predictive intelligence to stop vehicles, violating Americans’ rights.” (11/24/25)
https://reason.com/2025/11/24/mass-surveillance-is-powering-a-new-era-of-pretextual-traffic-stops/
- Inflation is Class Warfare Against the Poor
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Thomas Eddlem“[I]nflation is the most effective instrument in making the rich richer, and the poor poorer. But what would happen in an alternative scenario where the money supply doesn’t increase much over a long period of time? As it happens, we have a historical case of this happening in nineteenth century America.” (11/24/25)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/inflation-is-class-warfare-against-the-poor
- Trump’s Plan to Give Americans $2,000 Tariff Dividend Checks Is “Pure Fiscal Fantasy”
Source: Cato Institute
by Colin Grabow & Clark Packard“This is not a dividend at all. It’s a deficit-financed giveaway, arriving at a moment when the federal government is already projected to run a $1.8 trillion deficit. Worse still, the money is already spoken for. Congress counted tariff revenue as an offset when passing the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill tax reform package earlier this year. Revenue cannot fund both tax cuts and rebate checks. The administration is trying to spend the same dollar twice. But suppose, for the sake of argument, the money actually existed and the deficit didn’t matter. The proposal would still be misguided. For one thing, it’s economically pointless. Tariffs are taxes paid by Americans, not foreigners, and the government’s plan amounts to collecting that money in Washington, skimming off administrative costs, and then mailing a smaller amount back to the public.” (11/24/25)
- Don’t Call This a “Peace Plan”
Source: Foreign Policy
by Christian Caryl“Today’s Ukraine is not 1938 Czechoslovakia. Yet the 28-point ‘peace plan’ negotiated between the United States and Russia and leaked to the media late last week suggests that U.S. President Donald Trump considers the Munich deal a precedent. Like Chamberlain, he seems to believe that he can make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Ukraine’s land and future over the latter’s head. But this calculation is flawed. It betrays Trump’s fundamental misunderstanding of European geopolitics — both Russia’s unbroken designs to control Ukraine and the Ukrainians’ continued willingness to fight for their land and independence.” (11/24/25)
- Thanks to the Supreme Court, presidential immunity is now a license to kill
Source: The Hill
by Steven Lubet“President Trump often portrays himself as a mythical, hyper-masculine character. On his digital trading cards, for example, he is depicted as an astronaut, a cowboy, a race-driver, a boxer and of course, a costumed superhero. Although he hasn’t yet appeared as a secret agent, Trump does have one thing in common with the fictional James Bond: They have both been licensed to kill. … In Trump’s case, the authorization is all too real, backed up by exponentially more firepower than Bond’s tricked-out Aston Martin. Enabled by a Supreme Court decision granting presidents immunity for official acts, Trump has deployed planes, missiles and drones to sink 21 small, unarmed boats suspected of drug smuggling in international waters in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. As of last week, at least 83 crew members or passengers had been killed. Neither the evidence nor the purported legal basis for the strikes has been made public.” (11/24/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/supreme-court/5617710-supreme-court-trump-immunity/
- Jack Mallers vs. Chase: Why Debanking is a Badge of Honor
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey“Do you know Jack Mallers? Have you heard of the company Strike that he runs? Perhaps you’ve heard of JP Morgan Chase? Well, let me tell a quick story of how the world is a-changin’. Yesterday, on X, Mallers posted the September 2, 2025, letter he framed from Chase, noting the closure of all his accounts. … The letter informed Mallers that Chase had flagged ‘concerning activity’ during routine monitoring. The result? His accounts were being closed immediately, and he was permanently barred from opening new ones. No specifics were offered. No recourse was suggested. He was simply ejected from the financial system by one of its most powerful gatekeepers. Of note, Strike is somewhat of a competitor to JP Morgan Chase, and if not a direct threat today, certainly is for the future. For many, this would be a crisis. For Mallers, it was a milestone.” (11/24/25)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/jack-mallers-vs-chase-why-debanking
- Grocery Bills and Corporate Taxes Dominate Upset Bid in Tennessee
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen“In Tennessee, another test of the ongoing fragmentation of the Trump coalition is playing out in a December 2 special election for the U.S. House. After bad losses for Republicans across the country over the last month, a seat that Donald Trump won last year by 22 points is at enough risk that conservative groups have thrown $3.3 million at the race in the final stretch. The seat was vacated in July by Rep. Mark Green, who opted to take a private-sector job. Republican Mark Van Epps, a member of Gov. Bill Lee’s administration, is facing Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn. It was designed as a gerrymandered red seat …. But the possibility of a monumental upset has brought DNC chair Ken Martin and 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris to the district, earned Behn cable news appearances, and raised a ton of anticipation.” [editor’s note: This is my district. I am choosing neither the Trumper nor the Mamdani in a dress – SAT] (11/24/25)
https://prospect.org/2025/11/24/tennessee-aftyn-behn-congress-house-race-nashville/
- Bulwark Takes, 11/24/25
Source: The Bulwark
“Candace Owens Is Now Fully Delusional — and Her Audience Doesn’t Care.” (11/24/25)
- Something Completely Different, With Brian Wilson, 11/24/25
Source: Brian Wilson Speaks
“Richard Arrowood and Our Annual Holiday Wine Time.” (11/24/25)
https://brianwilsonwrites.substack.com/p/richard-arrowood-and-our-annual-holiday
- Half the Answer, episode 51
Source: Liberal Currents
“National Delirium: NatSec in Post-9/11 America, from Dubya to Donny.” (11/24/25)
- Politicks, 11/24/25
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Sedition or Speech? Trump Demands Trials for Six House Democrats.” (11/24/25)
- Reason Roundtable, 11/24/25
Source: Reason
“Trump Embraces Mamdani Socialism as ‘Practical.'” (11/24/25)
https://reason.com/podcast/2025/11/24/trump-embraces-mamdani-socialism-as-practical/